Chapter 44: Bonds Broken, Bonds Rediscovered, Bonds Made

Their plan to capture Cornelia or Marrybell might have failed, but it carries with it consequences. Cornelia confronts her sister on her choices that night, and is hit with a surprise of her own while Nina and Kirihara both makes moves.

With the order given, the Black Knights made their retreat. Those units who could deployed their chaff and rushed off into the ruins of the docks, the smoke and fires aiding in masking them. Suzaku had wished to give chase, to end all this madness by capturing Zero here and now, but Dalton's orders couldn't be ignored.

Finding Cornelia wasn't too hard, as they had been listening to radio chatter. Once they had her location, they sent what they could spare to protect her as she was taken back to the settlement, no one under the impression that she was happy with any of it, particularly because Marrybell retook control to isolate the area to have her people investigate things.

Come morning, it might have been kept out of the news, but people knew. An explosion like that couldn't be hidden, and the military's keeping workers and curious civilians back from the docks only fuelled speculation of events. The morning light also made it clear just how much the area had been wounded. The explosion and short but fierce battle that followed left only four buildings out of 80 standing. Just about every piece of infrastructure not in the ground, like pipes, was gone.

Worse off had been their soldiers. For those closest to the blast, they found their wrecked cockpit blocks, some so badly damaged that the bodies inside would have been hard to identify if not for their dog tags. But others, like those in Portmans, couldn't be found. Marrybell ordered the entire pier and its waters thoroughly searched, but could find nothing by scraps somewhat recognizable as belonging to Portmans, but that was it. The blast had all but vaporised them.

It was a heavy blow to them, one which they were just getting their heads wrapped around.

It was all being reported to Cornelia as she, along with her sister, sat on two thrones within the Viceroy building, Sapphire standing to Euphemia’s side. The imperial standing hung large and proud on the wall behind them. Down from their elevated platform stood Dalton, Guilford, and their sister Marrybell, her dutiful knight standing behind her, head bowed.

Cornelia's foul mood wasn't made better by the fact that both her men had visible bandages and band-aids covering their wounds. At the same time, Marrybell and her knight were fine. “Your highness, of the 20 Royal Marine Portmans deployed, we could only recover 7 of them. The rest were lost.” Dalton replied.

“And of those 7?” Cornelia asked, feeling a headache forming.

Dalton didn't seem happy about this, but relayed the information similarly. “4 of their pilots are dead or seriously wounded, and the other 3 were also wounded but should make speedy recoveries.”

“As for our regular forces, we lost the ship boarding team, as well as another 80 soldiers, suffering 130 injuries.” Guilford picked things up from there, having personally reviewed their records to confirm each loss. "Knightmares suffered heavy losses as well. Over a third were destroyed, including 3 of your Royal Guard."

Cornelia's grip on her seat grew tight with rage. They had already lost people due to Tohdoh's surprise attack at Narita, and now this? She was down to half her royal guard. Replacing such skilled and loyal soldiers wouldn't be easy, and she wasn't in a position to believe she could pick from the Area 11 forces, as they were only passable.

All could see Cornelia's frustration with recent events, but they couldn't give her time to calm. Not when they had such pressing issues to address. “In this last operation, as it was at Narita, the terrorists were specifically targeting you, your highness.”

Cornelia waved them off, though she wouldn't lie. She hated the idea that Zero had caught her twice now. "Eliminating the leader is a basic strategy."

“They also eliminated Prince Clovis.” Guilford reminded them, as his princess, that he was not a fan of Zero's traps and feared that if a third opportunity strike were to occur, he wouldn't be able to protect Cornelia.

"Zero isn't merely fighting Britannia; he's fighting the royal family. He loathes you, and he wants blood." Dalton added that Zero's actions, his desire for capture over simply elimination, spoke to a man who wanted something. And considering how Prince Clovis died, that was most likely to ensure Cornelia's end was as painful and shameful as possible.

‘Loathes…’ Euphemia thought about it, her eyes looking at her hands, folded on her lap as she recalled the hotel jacking, and how Zero approached it, approached her. But then she recalled meeting her brother. She wished to say she disagreed, that he wasn’t like that, that it was something else.

But…she could see the same anger in him as in Marrybell. That hatred led him to slay Clovis without mercy, whose to say it wouldn't one day do the same for Cornelia, for Marrybell…for her, should he perceive her as an enemy?

Cornelia paused, pondering their statement, missing how Euphemia also seemed lost in thought before Viceroy spoke up. "We have many enemies who would wish us harm. Zero is just another one we will deal with, but there is something I need to know now." Her gaze went to Marrybell, lacking any patience and brimming with irritation and possible violence.

“Oh, and what would that be, sister?” Marrybell met her sister’s caged fury with a calm, pleasant response.

"You knew, didn't you? You suspected a trap and pulled back, so we'll be your sacrifices." Cornelia accused her, as she had thought about the battle and events leading up to it, and was horrified and furious that she had been left to fall for the trap. Her sister used her like all the court's nobles would use each other, and she dared to stand here smiling like it was a normal day?

She struggled to understand what Schneizel saw in a hollow monster like Marrybell.

Ignorant of her sister's thoughts, but having an idea of them, Marrybell told her the same thing she had told her knights the night before. "I suspected there was more than we believed, but I could not prove it."

Before Cornelia could blow up at her and start an argument that could escalate beyond mere words and yelling, Euphemia spoke up. “And what was this that didn’t add up, sister Marrybell?”

Marrybell nodded, happy her sister prevented them from wasting time fighting each other, so she explained her reasoning. “It wasn't just one thing, Euphemia. It was several. One of whom was the ship itself. 40 thousand tons of liquid Sakuradite isn't easy to come by, and even with this mysterious Kyoto supplying them, they would surely struggle to procure such a vast amount; such would have surely left a paper trail, which could have perhaps allowed us to implicate the NAC and finally rid ourselves of them.”

Marrybell rolled her eyes as she said the last part, as they all knew that the NAC was involved in terrorism. They were the only Elevens with the resources, capital, and contacts to do so on a scale that covered the whole of Area 11. The only reason they couldn't touch them was partly their lack of evidence and partly because they didn't have the means to replace those Elevens should they make that move.

“Of course, it could have been stored up, as we know that Zero’s intervention at Narita destroyed your offensive and allowed them to escape, so they could have easily transported as much of it out as they could, but it led to another problem: Why?" Marrybell stopped, looking at Cornelia and then at her men, ignoring Euphemia, who she knew had no talent for this.

“Why would Zero let them just flee to the ballless, greedy, pathetic Chinese with that much Sakuradite? Surely a rat like him would want to keep it for his own operations. I dare say he would have gotten more use of it, and in a way, he did.” Cornelia bristled at the last comment, as that use was little more than a giant explosive. She'll need to explain one to the people soon, before rumours gain traction.

“But weren’t the JLF and the Black Knights separate?” Euphemia asked, as she couldn’t imagine her brother having any part in the hotel jacking.

Marrybel laughed at the question. "On paper, but I doubted it. Zero did have reason to act at Narita, if only you hadn't been able to focus on him exclusively, but then why did the JLF attacks cease after Narita? Why hasn't there been a single sighting of them? We know they escaped with good fuel, munitions, and equipment reserves, so it couldn't have been an issue of lacking the strength for such moves."

Marrybell just couldn't understand, and her experience handling such groups only made it harder as the JLF didn't behave like them in the slightest post-Narita. "Terrorist groups are prideful, ill-tempered, and don't know how to just accept facts. You must have found it strange that the same organisation that carried out the hotel jacking just to remind people they existed wouldn't have capitalised on your defeat at Narita, or am I wrong, sister?"

She asked, glancing towards Cornelia, who kept her face as it were, not passive but still visible, angered by everything. This anger was compounded by the fact that she had not considered such factors.

She couldn't be sure if Marrybell suspected that, the younger royal kept going. "A plausible, and now proven reason for that was simple: Perhaps in exchange for aiding them at Narita, the JLF was willingly absorbed into the Black Knights. They just pretended otherwise for the sake of the trap.”

This was the first time Marrybell didn't seem so pleased or content. She frowned. It was small and hard to see, but they saw it, and the soldiers couldn't blame her. Zero, for all the problems he was causing, was believed to have been operated with one of Area 11's smaller terrorist group forces. They had to plan for their lack of numbers or specialised equipment in any meaningful quantity.

At Narita, he proved he had two units, one of which could match a 7th-gen while the second he personally commanded could at least keep up in a support role. Last night, they saw an improved version of Zero's spider-inspired knightmare, one that could handle fighting 7th-gen machines.

But that was troubling if he truly had been sitting on the JLF's resource and number pool. A man like that wouldn't have just been doing nothing with them; he would have been training, reequipping, and making plans to use them.

"But we had good intelligence that he was spotted on the ship, and the Katase was trying to flee," Guilford said, but Marrybell wasn't convinced.

“We suspected, but couldn’t confirm it was him.” She corrected, her frown growing as she continued, now focused on their so-called tip.

“And when you think about it, wasn't it lucky that we suspected them to begin with? The man goes for years without being seen, forcing us to rely on old Eleven records to identify him. He and his little group of troublemakers then vanish for weeks, only to be spotted as he's fleeing the country? Why not use some other route to escape? Why escape at all?”

Euphemia kept silent, but she could see how it seemed…suspicious when it was laid out like that. For many other terrorists, they had more recent photos. Still, most hadn't been military before Area 11 was established. Spies and informants in the ghettos could easily provide images of their targets for databases, with few exceptions.

Katase was different, as even captured JLF had never talked, no matter how…intense the interrogations got with them. Narita was an exception, as there had been rumours for years before they confirmed it via scouts, but how did they learn of Katase's movements to the supposed tanker?

As she started to ask herself these questions, Oldrin noticed. She was impressed with the princess. She had written her off as near useless, but she did, in fact, have a brain and knew how to use it. And tact as well as she wasn't blurting out all the questions that had to be shooting around her head.

"You could say it was because of me, because I'm known for being good at what I do, but in my experience, that just makes terrorists want to fight me more, to prove they would be different, smarter, faster than those I've slain. But if he was scared, I would discover him. Why didn't we spot Tohdoh with him? Or any of those knock-off knightmares the Elevens used?" Marrybell continued, as even if they had been fleeing to China, wouldn't it make sense to bring more than just Sakuradite? Why leave equipment around?

Maybe he was a coward fleeing the fight, but that didn't match the psychological profile they built on the man. He was inflexible and stubborn and preferred older tactics, but he was no coward or turncoat.

“It all seemed too odd to be mere chance. I even suspected the ship wasn't just carrying liquid Sakuradite, as the blast of 40 thousand tons of that going off would have been much greater." Marrybell finished, as she had done the match the night prior, merely to appease her curiosity before she went to bed.

The low-ball estimate would have destroyed the entire port and the areas close to it, which would have surely killed 30 thousand people, while many more would have been injured. Instead, the blast had mainly destroyed that part of the port, and as far as they knew, it had only killed their men and anyone else who would have been loitering around.

"But…if the entire thing was meant as a trap, wouldn't the explosion have been stronger? Why weaken it?" Euphemia asked. As much as she hated discussing her sister's possible death and questioning why she was still alive when she didn't want her to die, this wasn't adding up. Brother…if brother hated them, then why not just end it?

Marrybell raised an eyebrow. "Dalton just said it, didn't he? Zero hates us enough that he didn't want Cornelia to be vaporised; he wanted to capture her and probably torture her before killing her like he did brother Clovis." She spoke candidly, not visibly bothered by the possible horrific fate that awaited her older sister should this masked rat get his hands on her.

Truth be told, she also suspected Zero wanted info, as he could have interrogated Clovis beforehand; they did find a bullet in his throne, which wasn't part of those that killed him, but they couldn't be sure.

Cornelia had had enough of this talk. She could see the logic and even agree with it, which only fueled her rage at her sister's choice last night. “If you suspected all that, why didn’t you say anything? Why would you let me send in my men to die?” She demanded, getting up from her throne and marching down to Marrybell, glaring at her.

Marrybell subtly waved off her knight's attempt to intercept her older sister. Instead, she allowed Cornelia to approach her and glared down on her with such wrath it would have made most shiver.

And yet, Marrybell was hardly phased. Even as the shorter and weaker of the two, she lifted her head to keep eye contact with her sister, showing her no fear. "One reason you should understand is that I'm not here to hold your hand, sister. You're an accomplished commander and soldier, yet you didn't see anything wrong? That's a mockery of your title and standing."

Marrybell insulted her sister as she frowned at her, something akin to disappointment and disgust in her gaze. She wondered how the Goddess of Victory had fallen so low that she couldn't catch a single masked bastard, that she couldn't read the situation and speculate, that she would not have seen the same red flags as Marrybell had.

“Princess Marybell-” Guilford, who, along with Dalton, had already turned to her. He had agreed with her the night before, but that was for his princess's safety. Now, it was her honour and he would not have her insult it.

Marrybell ignored the knight and kept her attention on her family, people she should have been able to trust. "But I could forgive that, sister. And perhaps in another situation, I would have happily spoken up and tried to consult you, for that is what family is for." She didn't smile, she didn't charm; she glared right back at Cornelia.

Euphemia was worried about this coming right, her gaze going towards her assigned knight, Sapphire. The older woman looked just as nervous as she was about things. “So why was it different now?” Euphemia asked, fearing the worst.

“Because it’s not a courtesy you two seem to extend to me.” Marrybell didn't snarl; she kept too strong a leash on her anger for that. "From the moment I've arrived, you'll have treated me like an outsider and have lied to my face."

“I didn’t.” Cornelia challenged, only for Marrybell to snap her fingers.

“Oldrin, if you will?” Oldrin didn't respond with words but reached into the briefcase she had been carrying, an odd thing for the knight. She pulled out a folder from it and silently handed it to Marrybell, who, in turn, shoved it into Cornelia's chest.

Cornelia would have rejected it or demanded to know why this was, but it would have been meant to be read if it had been given to her.

As she did so, Marrybel laid into her: "The day I arrived, I asked you where sister Euphemia was, and instead of telling me she was at Ashford Academy, you lied to me face and claimed she was out on important business."

Euphemia went pale as she realized Marrybell knew, and if she knew, then it meant she had been followed, but she hadn't even noticed. Cornelia was just as shocked as she looked through the folder, which contained dozens of pictures of her sister along with Eleven outside the viceroy building, the two walking onto Ashford groups and only walking out hours later.

There were more notes and details on people she met with, the Ashford, and other dealings Euphemia and even Cornelia had since then.

Marrybell hadn't just been prepping for her war on Zero; she had people following her, and neither princess suspected a thing.

Euphemia only grew paler as Marrybell finally turned her attention towards her, her full attention, and all she could see in her sister's face was something dangerous. "Euphemia, you could have just admitted you wished to see those close to Lady Marriane meet their daughter."

A part of Euphemia was glad Marrybell hadn't suspected who she had met with, but it was small comfort when her sister looked at her with disgust and hatred, and when she looked closer, a deep sense of betrayal. "But you didn't. You looked me in the eye and lied to me with the same face that frowned and glared at me like I'm your hated foe."

Euphemia held her tongue, as she hadn't been kind to her sister. She had changed since her mother and sister died; she had become something else. But…but she was still her sister, wasn't she? Marrybell had been trying, wasn't she? She did try to forge bridges with their siblings, and she clearly loved spending time with her brother Schneizel, who took her under his wing.

It was true, Marrybell had become someone who always wanted to hunt, capture, and kill terrorists. She enjoyed tormenting them and instilling fear in them, but was Clovis any better? Is Cornelia? Had she ever given Marrybell a chance? She tried to be someone she could trust, get close to, and perhaps steer off this destructive path.

"I'm not sure which was worse, the fact that you could lie to my face, or that you would think me so foolish that I wouldn't check."

Marrybell looked away, grinding her teeth as she struggled to contain her emotions. She wasn't so ignorant that she didn't know her true self, the person she had turned into, wasn't the most pleasant. But…she thought she could depend on them. That they, of all people, would understand the pain of losing family to terrorists and wanting to find justice, to rid the world of such rats.

But…Schneizel had warned her, hadn’t he? She should have listened to his advice. That was a mistake she would not make again.

Marrybell blinked, and that betrayed look vanished, buried under untold amounts of bone-chilling hatred, leaving Euphemia to wonder if the chance to reach out to her sister had just been snuffed out.

“So, since you two can’t see to treat me like a sibling trying to help you capture the man who murdered our dear brother, then I shall act as the emperor’s hand here in Area 11.” Marrybell's voice had no mirth, teasing tone, or fox-like grin. It was cold, it was brutal, and it was direct.

Turning on her heel, she didn’t spare either sister a thought or glance. “We’re done here. I expect you both to refrain from getting in my way.” She had a terrorist to find and a head to point on pikes.

Line Break

At the same time, the Black Knights were conducting their own meeting. Instead of being in a single spot, this time, they had someone driving their ride down the street, the tinted windows keeping them out of view of anyone while their ride blended in with the rest of the traffic.

“I still can’t believe it, a flying knightmare?” Tamaki asked, as Urabe had just finished talking about how his side of the operation had gone, and how they had failed to capture either princess despite their plan and explosive opening move.

“Trust me, I was just as surprised as you.” Urabe sighed, as he had hoped to gain a major win. But they’ll need to settle for slaughtering more of Cornelia’s forces, including those he was sure were part of her royal guard.

"It wouldn't have mattered if I were able to get my hands on that stupid princess," Kallen grumbled, still pissed she hadn’t won her single match against some pissy princess.

"From the sounds of it, she put up a good fight and was equipped with a unit comparable to the Lancelot," Senba spoke up, the older soldier having listened to their stories and judged neither for their failure. “It’s quite troubling when you think about it. If they’ve already produced 2 more, how long till it enters mass production?”

Asahina could see that it was a major issue for them. "The Gekkas are better than the Burai Kai, but we just don't have gear like the MVS or V.A.R.I.S."

“We’ll have weapons comparable to them soon enough,” Rakshata said. The woman was busy looking through some information on her tablet, but she didn't have just one. One of her assistants was present, and he carried a second, which she would cycle through as she multitasked as easily as most breathed. "I've been working on such for a while now, and since I got my hands on the Earl of Puddings's work, I've had plenty of ideas."

“Earl of…Pudding?” The rest looked towards Kallen and, to some extent, Diethard about the title, hoping they would know about it, only for both to shake their heads. Diethard had frankly never heard something so stupid in his life.

“Britannians have dumb titles.” Tamaki wrote it off as nothing more, while others thought it could be something else, maybe a nickname, but for whom?

“Speaking of, where did you acquire that date, Rakshata? Was it through Kyoto?” Asahina asked, to which she waved it off as she focused on her work.

"In a way, but they only got it thanks to our masked leader," Rakshata explained, not particularly invested in the info. Still, she was the minority, as the rest were stunned that Zero had such info.

“Wait, for real?”

“Is that so surprising?” Zero asked, walking into the meeting space from the second floor. “If one knows where to look and the right people to ask, you'll find you can learn many things," Zero noted as he took his place at the head of the meeting.

"It would have been nice to know you had that information beforehand," Inoue grumbled, leading Zero to slowly turn his gaze her way, sending pickles down her back.

“…Apologies, but it wasn’t important at the time.” Zero eventually spoke, bowing his head just a little.

"Wasn't important, that thing is a monster," Yoshida replied.

“Correct, it's an exceptionally capable unit with abilities and functions never before seen. However, knowing all that would have done little good at best and worst put your lives at greater risk as you subconsciously thought you would have had a chance.” Zero stated, sounding as sure as the sun was hot with himself.

"He's…not wrong, I know I might have tried something," Kallen said in Zero's defence. “He only filled me in on that stuff after I got the Guren.” Ohgi frowned at that, along with Tohdoh, as that implied Zero had known about the Lancelot since as far back as before Narita. But they didn't mention such.

“And not me?” Urabe asked, as he had to fight in that last mission. Maybe it wasn't the Lancelot or the red ones, but it wasn't like he had an easy time either.

“I had no reason to believe the Lancelot or its red twins would be present for the battle. The Britannians were meant to see it as a weak and defenceless Katase trying to flee.” Zero explained, but then nodded towards Urabe in apology. “I will not make such assumptions moving forward. You will be assured of all the details that will benefit the mission and befit your rankings amongst our order.”

Urabe hummed, still a little angry, but he could see the reason behind the move. Besides, there was something…comforting in knowing even their masked miracle maker could screw up from time to time, certainly helped to remind you that beneath all that, he was as human as the rest of them. "Well, when you put it like that, it sounds overkill. Best they could have expected was the Burai and the Raikos, and they could handle both with regular forces outside a cramped tunnel."

“Onto the battle, any comments?” Zero turned his attention to Rakshata, seeing the other issue as resolved.

"I haven't had the time to look over things with more than a glance, but I assure you that flying one wasn't equipped with a float unit. It seems they haven't quite cracked the code yet." Rakshata concluded, before she placed her tablet down to focus more on the meeting.

“But you have.” Zero didn't ask, and Rakshata and the rest felt he was smiling beneath the helmet.

“Well, when you handed me Pudding’s work, I was able to fill in some gaps in my own research. We’ll be testing out my Air Glide units come the end of the week, provided we get suitable parts.” Rakshata replied, leading to Zero nodding, pleased with the report.

“I'll throw in my own funds if it helps speed things up and make the request to Kyoto as expected.” Zero replied. With Kyoto becoming their primary backer, his finances looked much healthier. He could afford to hand over 100, maybe 200K for the coming upgrades and testing costs.

Ohgi held up his hand as Zero and Rakshata were talking about stuff he didn't even understand. “What hell are float units and air glides?”

“In simple terms,” Rakshata started, having forgotten that not all of them had been kept up on her work. "They're jetpacks that have been upgraded several times. They can be equipped onto knightmares and, as you can guess, grant flight comparable to a fighter jet."

Urabe whistled. “Holy crap, that sounds powerful.”

“Powerful is right," Chiba spoke, as she could already envision several situations where a knightmare as agile as the Gekka being able to fly would benefit them.

Rakshata pulled them in before they got too far with this. "Hold your horses, don't get too excited. My predictions need work, and we're fine-tuning them once we get them."

“Because they won’t work?” Tohdoh asked.

"Because even Pudding's work details how much of a drain they'll be on your energy fillers. Even in optimal conditions, it cuts operational time by 40%." Rakshata explained, picking up her tablet and quickly scrolling to the details on her design and how it would fit onto a unit like her Guren.

Handing it to Tohdoh, he and Kallen looked over it and grimaced when they saw the cut to operation time. Even if it fitted onto a unit not as energy intensive as his own custom Gekka, it wasn't too much of an improvement.

"So, it would be ill-advised to use such tech now?" Tohdoh inquired as their current form of battle wasn’t suited for such. They weren’t ones to linger, but they still needed time to wiggle should things come up, and they also needed enough energy to retreat at the end.

"Correct, but I won't just throw up my hands on this. Rest assured, I've slotted time out of my day to work on this problem, among others." Rakshata replied. The woman kept busy, but that was the same for most of them.

"Let's focus less on theoretical equipment and what we have. How's the general?" Chiba asked, as they hadn’t heard from him since he departed.

She looked towards Zero for answers, to which he had. “Katase and his team departed Japan aboard the Ikaruga last afternoon. According to their last communication, they’ve reached international waters.”

“And when they arrive, I’ll be serving under Katase?” Diethard asked, the man now dressed in his own Black Knight uniform. This was the reason they had been speaking in English this entire time. They had heard his attempts at Japanese.

And decided it was better for their souls to just speak English until their latest member could speak the language with more skill than an overly eager tourist.

“Correct, you’ll mainly focus on public relations," Zero replied, and Diethard bowed his head.

“I shall ensure my skills are put to good use.”

Line Break

“Good afternoon, Nina.” Nunnally greeted.

Classes had ended for the day, and she was spending some time with the council, Alice, and her sisters. The room was packed with many presents, but she didn't mind. She enjoyed having so many friends around.

"G-good morning, Nunnally," Nina replied. The spectacles girl had spent the entire day working up the nerve for this, and she couldn't fail now.

Alice didn’t understand Nina, not in the slightest. She and her sisters had gone through hell with Code-R and experienced things that would break people. While they weren't shining rainbows…well, most of them aren't—even someone like Lucretia was softspoken and silent, but when she spoke, it was clear and direct.

“Why does she stutter like that?” Alice asked Nunnally, as she had come to rely on the blind girl to show her the way with a lot of things.

“Alice.” Nunnally's tone inferred that she had perhaps made a mistake, a not-so-rare thing, but she was getting better, so she failed to see what social norm she had broken now.

“What? It’s just a question.”

"A rude one," Sancia noted. She and Dalque were seated next to Lelouch at the council table. The VP and Kallen were aiding each other with their homework. Dalque didn't look it, but she did wish to perform well and have good grades. It was just…difficult with stuff like this, English and math…and chemistry.

Lucky for them, they had people who could assist them, and when they handled history, they could all laugh at some of the stuff the textbook said, which Lelouch was sure was completely made up.

“Hey!” Alice yelled at her sister, getting laughs from the rest.

“I have something to give you!” Nina yelled, almost shoving a box into Nunnally's lap. The blind girl paused as she reached for it and felt around it.

“Me?” she asked. It wasn't a particularly big box, maybe the size of a shot box, but she could tell it had been wrapped with care, even having a bow atop it. "But why? My birthday passed. If anything, I should be giving you a late birthday gift."

“That would just be a typical gift, Nunnally.” Lelouch reminded her as Nina tried to keep her cool and not run.

“I just…wanted to thank you for, you know…” Nina didn't know how to say it, but Lelouch raised his head from where he was aiding Sancia with some math problems.

“The hotel jacking?” He guessed, which made the girls who had gone twitch or gulp, only for Lelouch to roll his eyes. Did he think he would pounce? "I already know about it, and you all decided not to inform me how close to disaster things got."

"I didn't want you overreacting, brother, you can be too much of a momma bear." Nunnally retorted.

Lelouch's jaw fell at his sister's shocking jab. "Momma-Nunnally Lamperouge, you will not start calling me that, too."

“It’s the truth.” Nunnally teased him, which only further got under his skin. Here, he thought his day would be without issue after he and Kallen returned from their meeting.

Milly couldn’t help but laugh at the scene. "Oh, she's finally reached it, the dreaded rebellious phase. Next, it's hair highlights, late nights out, and shocker, boys-boys as far as the eye can see."

Lelouch groaned as Milly's taunting even got to the birds, who chirped and crowed in what he hoped wasn't agreement. The idea of his sister with some punk…no, just no. "Milly, I have enough nightmares as is. Please don't add to that."

“Ignoring brother overreacting like I said he would,” Nunnally threw in one last shot at her brother’s expense, but focused more on Nina. “Can I open the gift?”

When Nina said yes, Nunnally carefully started undoing the wrapping, feeling around for the folds and seams so she could get to the contents without tearing them. As she got to the box, the rest fell silent and waited as Nunnally opened it.

“It’s…a swan?” Nunnally asked as she raised the item in question, revealing a small marble figurine of a swan.

Nina nodded, her cheeks just a little flushed, which raised an eyebrow from Lelouch. C.C., who sat with Henty and Matilda using her as a bed for a nap, looked on with a knowing smirk. "Yes, I saw it at the store the other day, and thought you'd like it since you like animals so much."

Nunnally gave Nina a smile, which she had to fight not to blush as red as Kallen's hair. “I love it. Thank you, Nina. I’ll put it right next to my bed.”

“By the way, Lulu, how did you learn about what happened?” Lucky for her, Shirley drew attention away from her.

An old gambling buddy brought it up during a conversation we had. He said he knew a guest there, though he didn't know you guys. He also added that Princess Euphemia was present and spoke up for you all." Lelouch lied as easily as he breathed.

“Wait, for real?” Rivalz asked, to which the group all confirmed it.

"Good to see there's still some royals worth the title," Kallen muttered under her breath, though she wouldn't shake Euphemia's hand yet.

“Well, now I want to meet her," Rivalz stated.

“Why’s that?” Milly asked.

“You said it yourself, she’s a princess worth the title. I marry her, I marry into royalty.” Rivalz laughed at his joke, to which Kallen only rolled her eyes, while Sancia shook her head.

"Figures," Kallen stated.

"I'm sure you'll never hear with such impure motives." With a smile and her new swan in hand, Nunnally just went for the neck against Rivalz, who deflated.

“It was a joke.” He tried to lean on Milly, but she pushed him off with a rolled-up stack of paper.

“Suzaku, you’ve spent time around the princess, haven’t you?” C.C. asked the soldier who had been put on the spot.

“Wha-I mean, I’ve seen her around, but I wouldn’t say we’ve spent time together.” As Lelouch might know, Suzaku quickly explained that he knew Euphie, but he didn't know how, and he would rather not have the rest learn that two.

“And do you agree with Nunnally’s assessment?” C.C. asked him again, not bothering to confirm or deny his claims as she played with Henry’s ears.

“Well,” Suzaku at least had the decency to look towards Rivalz with an air of apology. "Yeah, she'll see right through that. and that's if she gets the chance, as Cornelia's protective of her sister, almost as much as Lelouch is with Nunnally."

Rivalz hissed and verbally backed away from that. “Yikes, yeah, remind me to stay clear of her. I don’t need a momma bear with access to actual weapons and soldiers.” He liked having functional knee caps and a house that wasn't on fire.

"Oh, hardy, har-har," Lelouch grumbled as he returned to helping the two middle schoolers with their work.

Line break

The rest of the day went without any issues, and he was able to retire at a reasonable hour. He and Chantal snuggled as sleep took them.

He still didn’t have any dreams, but having no nightmares was something he hoped he never tired of. He especially hoped he would never get tired of waking up and seeing Chantal's peaceful face, a soft smile on her face, as she had no doubt been dreaming of snacking on an infinite pizza or something. He had asked her what she dreamed about so much, but she refused to tell him.

He would have laid there with her longer, but he was starting to wear on his teacher's patience for his attendance record. To avoid needing to stay behind after regular hours to 'catch up,' he got out and prepped for the day. He ate breakfast with his sister and walked her to school before making his way to class.

But that was when he got an odd message.

He didn't have many contacts, and he had long since gotten an app that handled spam messengers, so he checked it out and saw it was from an unknown number—one that was clearly confirmed to be Kirihara.

Oh, he had almost forgotten he had given the old man his personal contact details, though he had understood that they would only be used in case of an emergency. Assuming the worst, he casually checked it as he walked up to the main building.

Shogi friend: This is payback for your little body double stunt.

'What the hell?' Lelouch's brow creased in thought. Clearly, this was personal, so he doubted the old man had gotten someone more tech savvy to write it, but why would he…?

“Hey, Lelouch!” Lelouch looked to see Suzaku rushing towards him, the Japanese soldier slowing as he caught up. "Look at you. You might actually make it for homeroom."

Lelouch shrugged. “Well, I prefer dealing with the bore of morning classes rather than being forced into afternoon classes."

"Oh yeah, those aren't as fun as I thought." Suzaku sighed, as he had been in there a few times already. It wasn't even because he was a bad student; he just missed classes from time to time due to his work.

"Whoever said glorified detention would be fun?" Lelouch asked him.

"It always looked fun on TV."

Lelouch looked at Suzaku like he wanted to smack some sense into him. “Yeah, you know what else looked fun? Living in medieval times, child soldiers and fighting literal monsters.”

"Please, knowing you, you'll sleep through the entire day and wake up at 3PM if possible." Suzaku retorted, as he wasn’t about to take lip from the world’s laziest man. How he kept his grades as high as he did was beyond him.

“Oh, if only I had such a luxury. I would cherish it.” Lelouch let loose some crocodile tears but pushed past them to focus on something that had been on his mind for a while now. "By the way, why have you been missing classes so much? Are they working you that hard in engineering?"

"We're short-handed," Suzaku replied quickly, too quickly.

Lelouch's gaze sharpened. He could smell a poorly kept secret, and he was curious to learn about it. “Short-handed? The Britannian military, short-handed?”

Suzaku knew that his statement wasn’t the best, but he had already said it, so he had to keep going and hope he didn’t mess up. "It's not like it's the norm. It's just that the Black Knights have done much damage. People end up dead or in the hospital, so when they need people to do grunt work, I'm almost always at the top of the list."

Lelouch looked him in the eye, trying to see what he wasn't telling. He knew Suzaku was telling the truth, but also knew he was keeping something from him. Eventually, he stepped back, as he was probably working on something he couldn't just talk about, much less as an Honourary Britannian, so he let it go.

“I just hope they aren’t working you too hard. Maybe you can ask a certain pinkie to fix that.” Lelouch joked.

“W-were not that close!” Lelouch chuckled at Suzaku’s terrible attempt to pretend otherwise.

“Yet she trusted you as an escort? And you trusted her to tell her about us.” Lelouch taunted, though he wasn't sure how the two had looked at each other. It was like how Rivalz looked at Milly and how he wished to look at him.

Still, as odd as it was, there weren't many people he wouldn't mind being romantically involved with Euphemia. Suzaku was a bit of a hard ass when it came to rules and doing things the right way, but his heart was in the right place, and he was more than strong enough to protect her.

Suzaku was about to respond when they heard someone calling out to them.

"Suzaku!" Both wondered who that was. It was a feminine voice, but it didn’t sound like any of their friends or teachers. If anything, it sounded a bit younger.

Turning, they were both left stunned at what they saw. Standing before them with a hand on their hips and a big smile was a girl with black hair styled into two ponytails and green eyes. Neither had seen her in years, but recognizing her only took a moment.

"K-Kaguya?!" Suzaku rubbed at his eyes to make sure it was real. However, even after pinching himself, his cousin still stood there, wearing Ashford's girl's uniform.

"Well, I heard you were attending here and decided to see if I could enrol. You can't have all the fun, right?"  She stuck out a tongue at him, giving them both a peace sign. But her eyes seemed to sparkle when she saw who was with him.

"And Lelouch is here to? Oh, it's been ages!" She didn't care about the growing crowd of students wondering who this new Eleven was and how she knew the two as she jumped into Lelouch's arms, Lelouch instinctively catching her as she moved her head and lips close to his ear in what seemed incredibly intimate.

As Suzaku's jaw fell further and students started gossiping about the nature of their VP's relationship with this Eleven, Kaguya whispered softly into his ear. “It’s such a pleasure to meet you, Zero.”

Lelouch's gaze widened just a little as his eyes looked down and saw the amusement on Kaguya's face. “Kirihara.” He whispered back, just as softly to prevent anyone from hearing them.

“Oh yes,” Kaguya giggled before she jumped right off him and kept on like nothing had happened. I was worried that you and Nunnally didn't make it, but I should have had more faith. Look at you;you look so smart in your uniform.”

'Kirihara, you old bastard, I'll find some way to get you back for this,' Lelouch thought to himself, knowing that Kaguya, being here and being so Milly-like, would only bite him in the ass later.

In the distance, a white-haired figure watched them through a pair of binoculars, having hidden to keep those birds from seeing them.

'Great, more annoyances but…it doesn't matter, I'll get to him, and I'll have it, I'll finally have it.'

Line Break

It's a cool day, so I'm happy. Though I was up crazy late last night handling something, I tried to get this done so I could just go to bed. However, that didn't mean I cut stuff with the chapter, as I have so many things to touch up on, some hinted at, some not. But I can promise that what I had lined up might just surprise a lot of you.